Experimental and numerical verification of microplasma assembly for novel electromagnetic media

Abstract

Microplasmas have a number of potential roles to control propagating electromagnetic waves. This report focuses on novel physics of periodic microplasma assembly for electromagnetic media, which is verified by experimental results and analyzed by numerical methods. Using an assembly composed of microplasmas, novel functions are expected due to its complex dielectric function arising from dielectric and lossy properties. The dielectric property creates photonic band gaps, and the lossy property drastically changes transmittance around the photonic band gaps, leading to an attenuation gap. As a result, a "complex" dispersion relation or a band diagram in the three-dimensional space of real and imaginary wavenumbers and wave frequency will open new possibilities to control electromagnetic waves by complex-variable filters composed of microplasma assemblies. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.